Bitch Media - Race Playhttp://bitchmagazine.org/taxonomy/term/12035/0
enThinking Kink: The Right to Play With Racehttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/thinking-kink-the-right-to-play-with-race-feminist-magazine-bdsm-sex
<p>This is the second part of a two-part series on race and BDSM. <a href="/post/thinking-kink-bdsm-and-playing-with-race-sex-sexuality" target="_blank">Read the first post here</a>.</p><p><em>"As often happens, black women carry a double burden, as they are asked to uphold a respectability built on both racist and sexist foundations." - Tamara Winfrey Harris, "<a href="/article/no-disrespect" target="_blank">No Disrespect</a>" from the Fame + Fortune issue of</em> Bitch</p><p>As we discussed in my last post, <a href="/post/thinking-kink-bdsm-and-playing-with-race-sex-sexuality" target="_blank">playing with race in BDSM strikes many as problematic</a>. As a feminist with white privilege, I don't have direct experience with racism in the BDSM community and I can't speak to black women's experiences.&nbsp;However, I believe that if we are tired of the patronizing assumptions that women who participate in BDSM as submissives are disempowered, brainwashed, and somehow "letting the side down," then as <a href="http://clarissethorn.com/blog/" target="_blank">Clarisse Thorn</a> says, we also must recognize that it's "pretty damn patriarchal and paternalistic for white feminist theorists to tell [a black woman] that she oughtn't do race play."</p><p><img alt="" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7275/7735344254_8222b4ec5d_n.jpg" style="width: 251px; height: 320px; margin: 8px 5px; float: right;">Yet critics had plenty to say about Ciara's apparent submission to Justin Timberlake in the video for <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ciara_March_2007.jpg" target="_blank"><em>Love Sex Magic</em></a>, even though as Andrea Plaid <a href="http://%20%20http://www.racialicious.com/2009/04/03/your-sex-acts-and-partners-arent-uplifting-the-race/" target="_blank">points out</a>, "Ciara and Timberlake negotiated—again, the core BDSM idea of consent–that particular part of the video. He's also not standing as a proxy for all white men and their enslaving fantasies [any] more than she is a stand-in for all Black women wanting to be on a leash." Plaid also reminds us that to assume the submissive is powerless is to fundamentally misunderstand the power dynamics of BDSM. It may be troubling for us to see Ciara reenacting an image that is still too familiar in everyday life—a white man asserting his power over a black woman—however, there is a difference between sexualizing racialized behavior and directly replicating hatred and inequality, and to assume that actors and audiences cannot see this is condescending to say the least. Assuming that Ciara must also be the "bottom" off-camera is patronizing. It's also inaccurate in this case: It was she, not Timberlake, who came up with the idea for the video.</p><p>When we see famous women of color playing with sexual power dynamics, the tendency is to assume this must be reflective of what they do in their personal lives (see <a href="/post/thinking-kink-bdsm-abuse-rihanna-lisbeth-salander-feminist-magazine-sexuality" target="_blank">this previous post on Rihanna</a>), and isn't that problematic?&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mollena.com/" target="_blank">Mollena Williams</a>, BDSM educator and one of few black submissives who speaks openly about her participation in race play, is tired of having history thrown in her face—"I show my respect [for my ancestors] by living fearlessly. I firmly believe the people who fought and died for our freedom weren't sitting on the front lines worrying about how that freedom would be used."</p><p><img alt="" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8426/7735162152_631e47d8fc_n.jpg" style="width: 317px; height: 320px; margin: 8px 5px; float: left;">There have been some fantastic ripostes to the demand that black women censor their behavior just because it might make other people uncomfortable. Fierce and angular Grace Jones was keeping it black, kinky, and androgynous in videos such as "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTm9gDwwMZk&amp;feature=related" target="_blank">Slave To The Rhythm</a>" in the years when black people were rarely seen on MTV—and who can beat "Warm Leatherette" for best kinky song title? Unlikely BDSM spokeswoman Joan Armatrading merrily sang a tribute to erotic violence in "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc_WJFp6fRs" target="_blank">I Love It When You Call Me Names</a>", crooning "I know you're gonna slap my face/ And beat me up over and over again." As we scramble to decipher whether Armatrading is&nbsp; glorifying the physical abuse of black women, a quick listen to the lyrics tells us that she is actually describing a BDSM relationship from the outside, and taking on its different roles during the song ("He loves it when she beats his brains out...It's their way of loving not mine.")</p><p>Armatrading's role-playing tribute is a perfect example of how art is often not real life, or even close. It's also a necessary reminder of how we need to accept that black women—singers, artists, or BDSM performers—are as capable of getting into boundary-pushing roles and then leaving them behind afterwards as anyone else. Recognizing precisely that "it's their way of loving not mine" also reminds us that for some, the thrill of the taboo and delving into what we find scary can be the biggest turn-on of all. Mollena Williams writes that "daring to stare into the face of racism, classism and sexism and discover why they tripped my erotic triggers"* left her more fulfilled as a person, as well as a sexual being. And therein lies the appeal of BDSM that pushes boundaries, race included—it <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dR7bTc1aXbcC&amp;pg=PA152&amp;lpg=PA152&amp;dq=to+play+with+real,+structural+inequalities+in+safe+and+pleasurable+ways&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=9AF9P0i4tz&amp;sig=8gR7ZYALwt5Zsme4N3Q1HgQwRkQ&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=S0QhUM7JL4Oe0QW854CIDQ&amp;ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&amp;q=to%20play%20with%20real%2C%20structural%20inequalities%20in%20safe%20and%20pleasurable%20ways&amp;f=false" target="_blank">allows us</a> "to play with real, structural inequalities in safe and pleasurable ways: in ways that make such play <em>play</em>."</p><p><em>*This extract from Tristan Taormino's excellent book </em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultimate-Guide-Kink-Tristan-Taormino/dp/157344779X" target="_blank">The Ultimate Guide to Kink</a><em>. Mollena is also co-author of forthcoming BDSM guide </em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Playing-Well-Others-Discovering-Communities/dp/0937609587/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1344372397&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=playing+well+with+others+mollena+williams" target="_blank">Playing Well With Others</a><em>.</em></p><p><strong>Previously:</strong> <a href="/post/thinking-kink-bdsm-and-playing-with-race-sex-sexuality" target="_blank">Playing With Race in BDSM</a>, <a href="/post/thinking-kink-gay-sm-in-the-media-then-and-now-feminist-magazine-queer-bdsm-sexuality-pop-culture" target="_blank">Gay S&amp;M in Pop Music, Then and Now</a></p><p><em>Top image from Wikimedia Commons user <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ciara_March_2007.jpg" title="File:Liv Tyler Ciara Malgosia Bela.jpg">Liv_Tyler_Ciara_Malgosia_Bela</a>.&nbsp;</em><em>Bottom image from Flickr user <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocad123/" target="_blank">ocad123</a>.</em></p>http://bitchmagazine.org/post/thinking-kink-the-right-to-play-with-race-feminist-magazine-bdsm-sex#commentsBDSMCiaraClarisse ThornGrace JonesJoan ArmatradingJustin TimberlakeMollena WilliamsRace PlayracismrihannaSex and SexualityWed, 08 Aug 2012 20:38:54 +0000Catherine Scott18259 at http://bitchmagazine.orgThinking Kink: Playing With Race in BDSMhttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/thinking-kink-bdsm-and-playing-with-race-sex-sexuality
<p>As with the issue of female sexual submission, racial imagery in a BDSM context is an issue apt to cause heated debates, so I want to include two sides of the argument. <strong>Today, I'll examine the objections to the use of racialized imagery in kink, and in my next post I'll look at the responses by those who defend it.</strong></p><p>Tired of being reduced to stereotypes of "sassy" best friends, asexual "mammies" or <img alt="" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7262/7725354632_4fee2de044_o.jpg" style="width: 264px; height: 296px; margin: 8px 5px; float: right;">hypersexual "hoes," black feminists have long defended black women's right to be counted as both sexy and sexual, without being accused of racial disloyalty. But when we add domination, whips, and chains to the mix, things get more complicated. Hardly suprising, given that much of the language surrounding BDSM involves those loaded words "master" and "slave." We might just be able to stomach the sight of Rihanna writhing around for Adam Levine's pleasure in the video to Maroon 5's "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbtajuiuLMU" target="_blank">If I Never See Your Face Again</a>," but when Levine grabs Rihanna by the hair and jerks her head back at the end of the clip, we're reminded that, for many of us, there's nothing sexy about a white man physically abusing a black woman.</p><p>Recently released novel <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wench-A-Novel-Dolen-Perkins-Valdez/dp/006170654X" target="_blank">Wench</a></em>&nbsp; by Dolen Perkins Valdez depicts the pre-Civil War abuses of black female slaves who were raped, beaten, and sexually enslaved by their masters. Even the novel's gentler male characters whose slaves sleep with them "consensually" make the readers' skin crawl. How anyone could indulge in behaviors that don't just glorify but actively eroticize this oppression is baffling to some. When Snoop Dogg/Lion&nbsp;<a href="http://melindatankardreist.com/2010/01/putting-women-on-leashes-and-making-trafficking-sexy/" target="_blank">appeared with two black women on leashes</a> at the 2003 MTV awards, condemnations mostly focused on the way the women were being treated as objects and subordinated to a man. The connection with slavery and racism didn't really surface until Justin Timberlake was seen yanking Ciara around on a chain and using her as human furniture in the video for "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raB8z_tXq7A">Love Sex Magic</a>" in 2010. <a href="http://www.racialicious.com/2009/04/03/your-sex-acts-and-partners-arent-uplifting-the-race/" target="_blank">Commenters</a> felt that sexualizing such an ugly echo of slavery was obscene: "our ancestors are crying inside."</p><p>While many kinksters would immediately respond with the defense that BDSM is about playing with the forbidden and taboo, and pushing boundaries, this is insufficient even for some black people within the scene. Chupoo, a black submissive, <a href="http://www.mollena.com/2009/03/2465/" target="_blank">says</a>, "I can't do race play because I have people in my family who had to submit to that, where they had no choices. It's too close to home for American black people." She adds that, while she can accept the transgressive appeal of erotic language that seems to degrade women, she cannot accept scenarios that do the same to black people: "The race thing is really a lot deeper."</p><p><img alt="" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8421/7725421400_c6179a2a64_o.jpg" style="width: 456px; height: 302px; margin: 8px 5px; float: left;">The language of choice used to defend race play does ring hollow when we consider that the BDSM scene itself is not immune to dubious racial politics. Researcher Margot Weiss found that the Bay Area BDSM community was overwhelmingly white, but its participants considered themselves anti-racist, <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dR7bTc1aXbcC&amp;q=their+play+divorced+from+racial+inequality#v=snippet&amp;q=their%20play%20divorced%20from%20racial%20inequality&amp;f=false" target="_blank">feeling that</a> "their play [was] divorced from and irrelevant to racial inequality." Weiss wonders if this neo-liberal "colorblindness" actually just <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dR7bTc1aXbcC&amp;pg=PA197&amp;lpg=PA197&amp;dq=the+fantasy+of+an+escape+from+racism+without+giving+up+the+material+benefits+of+whiteness&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=9AF9O1c0uB&amp;sig=w7Jmpquha3edcPasTNMY3Ri_Cas&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=yMsfULPLI6Ou0QX9wYCoDQ&amp;ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&amp;q=the%20fantasy%20of%20an%20escape%20from%20racism%20without%20giving%20up%20the%20material%20benefits%20of%20whiteness&amp;f=false" target="_blank">salves white people's consciences with </a>"the fantasy of an escape from racism without giving up the material benefits of whiteness."</p><p>For Weiss, it's important to go beyond freedom of choice arguments. Is the First Amendment really sufficient excuse to eroticize the terms "master" and "slave," and even engage in scenes such as "slave auctions"? For some, absolutely not. "Jonathon,"&nbsp;<a href="http://www.racialicious.com/2009/04/03/your-sex-acts-and-partners-arent-uplifting-the-race/" target="_blank">a commenter on Racialicious</a>, says if you want to engage in race play, "that's your business. But when you take that imagery out of the BDSM club and broadcast it all over the world, you are exposing people to something that they may find highly objectionable. It shows NO RESPECT to those who have suffered."</p><p>Perhaps this goes to the heart of the matter: Private play is one thing, but putting eroticized sexual and racial violence out there in pop culture is quite another. As commenters on <a href="/post/thinking-kink-some-like-it-rough-feminist-magazine-bdsm-sex" target="_blank">my previous post</a> noted, rough sex can be great in the bedroom, but inevitably grows misogynistic on TV or in porn. If BDSM practitioners are obliged to be sensitive to their audience at a play party (one of Margot Weiss' interviewees <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dR7bTc1aXbcC&amp;pg=PA209&amp;lpg=PA209&amp;dq=but+in+public,+no+fucking+way&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=9AF9O1e1sB&amp;sig=ZLz5e8N7gyIF0it6RwO5GaE40os&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=6NMfUKnbKLSk0AXos4H4DQ&amp;ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&amp;q=but%20in%20public%2C%20no%20fucking%20way&amp;f=false" target="_blank">muses that he might indulge in race play</a>&nbsp;in private, "but in public, no fucking way"), should our media be held more accountable for glorifying images of white men being sexually aggressive to black women? How much responsibility should we demand of artists like Rihanna and Ciara—if any—to be cautious of such imagery? Responses to these questions, and some very different views on the matter, coming next post...</p><p><strong>Previously:</strong> <a href="/post/thinking-kink-gay-sm-in-the-media-then-and-now-feminist-magazine-queer-bdsm-sexuality-pop-culture" target="_blank">Gay S&amp;M in Pop Music, Then and Now</a>, <a href="/post/thinking-kink-the-politics-of-bdsm-fashion-beyonce-sex-feminist-magazine-kinky-clothes" target="_blank">The Politics of BDSM Fashion</a></p>http://bitchmagazine.org/post/thinking-kink-bdsm-and-playing-with-race-sex-sexuality#commentsBDSMblack womenCiaraDolen Perkins ValdezJustin TimberlakeRace Playracial stereotypesRacialiciousracismrihannaSex and SexualityMon, 06 Aug 2012 22:05:00 +0000Catherine Scott18236 at http://bitchmagazine.org